We join the Spanish community in mourning those killed and injured by the brutal attack on Thursday.
It’s remarkable that the major news agencies continue to refer to it as a ‘terrorist attack’ (which of course it was), though these same agencies refuse to refer to Palestinian attacks on packed Israeli public transportation as ‘terror’:
Associated Press: “Spain’s interior minister said Sunday a videotape has been discovered claiming al-Qaida carried out the Madrid terrorist attacks and threatening more…”
Washington Post: “…trying to manipulate public opinion about the terror attacks before the elections…”
AFP: ‘Terror Attacks Will Not Stop Spanish Football’
We reiterate that this is not merely a semantic issue — as the West unites against barbaric, utterly unjustified terrorism that threatens everyone, it is essential that Israel’s struggle against terror be understood as part and parcel of the larger concern. When news outlets differentiate between a bus attack in Jerusalem (the work of ‘militants’) from a train attack in Madrid (the work of ‘terrorists’), they expose their editorial decision that the Jerusalem attack is somehow more justified. That’s not just wrong, it’s downright dangerous. And far from ‘neutral reporting.’
Reuters, meanwhile, has referred to the Madrid bombs as a ‘guerilla attack’. For this, Reuters gets one point for consistency (they’ve also referred to Hamas as ‘guerillas’), but loses two points for accuracy.
UPDATE: Dr. Stephen Plaut has an article on this as well.
